


Tricoastal

by WhatBecomesOfYou



Category: Baby-Sitters Club - Ann M. Martin
Genre: F/F, Same-Sex Marriage
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-24
Updated: 2013-12-24
Packaged: 2018-01-05 22:59:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,856
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1099583
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhatBecomesOfYou/pseuds/WhatBecomesOfYou
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It took America 239 years from the signing of the Declaration of Independence to the time that gay marriage was legalized by the Supreme Court, in the soon-to-be landmark case of Thomas v. Florida.</p><p>It took 239 seconds from when CNN broke into their coverage to announce the decision had been handed down for Kristy Thomas to email all of her nearest and dearest friends to announce the news.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tricoastal

**Author's Note:**

  * For [wisdomeagle](https://archiveofourown.org/users/wisdomeagle/gifts).



It took America 239 years from the signing of the Declaration of Independence to the time that gay marriage was legalized by the Supreme Court, in the soon-to-be landmark case of _Thomas v. Florida_. It would go down in the history books as the next generation of the trail blazed by the Lovings back in 1967.

It took 239 seconds from when CNN broke into their coverage to announce the decision had been handed down for Kristy Thomas to email all of her nearest and dearest friends to announce the news, so they could hear it from the source. As if they hadn't all been following the case breathlessly for weeks, for that very reason.

_From: kthom00@outlook.com_  
 _To: bscgraduates@googlegroups.com_  
 _Subject: WE DID IT!_

_Is the Tricoastal Babysitters' Club Lesbian Wedding Spectacular on now? - K._

Kristy shut her laptop and walked into the other room, where Mary Anne looked up at her from the couch. CNN was interviewing a civil rights historian, and Mary Anne muted the TV. “We're going out tonight and celebrating,” Kristy said, sitting down on the couch next to her and slinging her arm around her shoulder. “You know how long I've been waiting for this day? The day when I can look at my girlfriend and ask her to be my wife, and know that every state in this crazy country has to recognize it and can't take that away from me?”

Mary Anne snuggled into her shoulder. “Didn't you say you realized you loved me as more than a friend and fellow babysitter and childhood best friend – and everything else – when we were freshmen in high school?”

“It was probably even earlier than that, but yeah. Something like that. And it's my name on that case. People are going to study about Kristy Thomas and her wonderful girlfriend Mary Anne Spier and the impact that they had on this country.”

She nodded and smiled, and Kristy felt the motion against her shoulder. “I'm going to assume you emailed the rest of them?”

“Yeah. Haven't heard back from any of them yet.”

“They're probably celebrating like us. No time to check their email.”

“Yeah, you're probably right. How does a nice steak dinner sound tonight? Best restaurant in the city, you and me.” Kristy just had to remember in which one of her two fancy dresses she had hidden the engagement ring. She'd put it there because she knew it was the one place that Mary Anne would never think to look.

“I – you know what, that sounds _amazing_. Do you want to go face the ravenous hoard of media who are probably camped outside as we speak?”

“Not really. I'd rather stay in here with you.” She breathed in the scent of Mary Anne's floral-scented shampoo and relaxed at an instant. This was where she belonged.

* * *

“Did you get the email from Kristy?” Dawn asked. Her voice crackled excitedly over the phone connection. 

“No. What did she say?” 

“If you turn on CNN, you'll see her face.” She waited for a moment, as she gave time for Claudia to find the remote and turn on the television. “See her?”

“Oh.” Claudia said, and she sat down on the couch, still grasping the phone in her hand. “ _Oh_. Oh my God. It's real, isn't it?”

“It's all anyone can talk about here at work,” Dawn said. “I should have never said that I was childhood friends with Kristy, because all anyone wants to talk about is Kristy, Kristy, Kristy, and I'm like, 'but I have a girlfriend, too, you know?' This is more than just Kristy. This is all of us. Gay man, lesbian, bisexuals, anyone who wants to marry someone the same sex -”

“Yeah, I know,” Claudia said. “If you wanted to come home and escape all that...”

“I think I will. See you soon. Love you.”

“Love you too.” Claudia clicked off from their call and picked back up her paintbrush. This dark and depressing piece wasn't going to suit her new frame of mind. She needed more bright colors, more vibrant colors. She picked up a blank canvas and pulled out the brightest pinks and yellows that she had. It was time to paint her feelings into reality.

* * *

The email alert came in on Stacey's phone right as the train pulled up to her stop on the subway. She looked at the subject line, who it was from, and let out a little screech. A little old lady turned around and gave her a concerned look. “I'm okay,” Stacey said. “Believe me, I'm more than okay. Actually, you know what? I'm perfect.” She felt her heart want to beat out of her chest as she practically sprinted off the train and sprinted the two blocks to her apartment building, and she took the steps two at a time running up. 

Charlotte stood at their door, a smile as wide as anything on her face. “I saw,” she said, as if she was stating the most simple of facts, and Stacey practically fell forward into her embrace. “I saw,” she repeated, almost as if she couldn't believe what she had seen herself.

“Oh my Lord, Charlotte, it actually happened. I can't believe it.” Stacey looked up at Charlotte and grinned. Everything felt so much different now than it had just that morning when she left for work, and yet, she knew in reality that not much had changed at all. Except for that one really big thing that made her heart pound to think about.

“Did you actually doubt that Kristy would be able to pull it off?” Charlotte asked. “Because if there's one person alive who could manage to sway the minds of nine very different people into doing something she wanted -”

“Yeah, Kristy can be very, uh, _persuasive_ ,” Stacey said, conceding the point to Charlotte. “But what Kristy is or isn't is beside the point right now.” She steadied herself on her feet and grasped the doorknob for balance. “I'm just – _wow_.”

“I thought ' _wow_ ' was reserved for when I do that thing with my tongue,” Charlotte said, a mischievous smile forming at the corner of her lips. “But I get what you're saying. Come on. Come inside. I don't want you to fall and hurt yourself right outside our door.”

“Wasn't planning on it,” Stacey said, throwing her briefcase inside the door and following it a second later.

* * *

Mallory heard the ding on her email alert and clicked away from her dissertation and into her inbox, only to find the email from Kristy at the top of her folder. “I just got an email from Kristy,” she called out.

Jessi popped her head in the room, from where she was getting changed into her dance instructor clothes. She shoved her arms haphazardly through the sleeve holes as she moved, not stopping for an instant. “What does she have to say?”

“You know how today was the day of the ruling?” Mallory said. At Jessi's affirmative nod, she continued. “Well, apparently – apparently Kristy wants to hold a Tricoastal Babysitters' Club Lesbian Wedding Spectacular now that it's official.”

“Tricoastal? Shouldn't it be quadcoastal? There's four couples, not three.” She pulled the fabric down her torso and straightened out the shirt as she did so. “Or, you know, not even associate it with coasts at all.”

“I guess because we're up here in Washington and Dawn and Claudia are down in Los Angeles, it counts as the same coast. Not that you can even get a tan on the beaches here.” She paused. “Not that I've _tried_ , or anything.”

Jessi nodded. “Still, it feels like we're the forgotten couple up here. Just because we're younger than them -”

“I don't think Kristy's being malicious about it, per se,” Mallory said. “She's probably just overly excited and typed before thinking about the consequences. You know that she's been secretly planning a giant lesbian wedding ever since the day she came out.”

“In true Kristy style,” Jessi said. “She's probably going to be the biggest Bridezilla to hit the Central Florida Gulf Coast. Her way or the highway.”

“I think Mary Anne helps calm her down though, so maybe she won't be so bad,” Mallory said, pulling up the reply window. “Should I tell Kristy that we're coming?”

“Of course. I wouldn't miss it.” Jessi walked back into the other room to fetch her dance bag and called over her shoulder, “But if she starts micromanaging what we wear and what kind of food the caterers bring...”

“I get what you're saying,” Mallory said, and keyed in a two word reply: can't wait.

* * *

The wedding was to be held in Connecticut – after all, most of their families were still there. And it would be kind of crazy, although completely within Kristy's wheelhouse, to have a four-state, three-coast wedding extravaganza, complete with BSC RV with eight wedding dresses in tow. It just made the wedding plans all that much easier to coordinate when there were only one set of caterers and florists and everyone else to deal with.

Kristy clicked off her phone and groaned. “Can someone please promise me that there's going to actually be a wedding in three days?” she asked, slamming her phone down on the table next to her. “Because the caterer ordered in crab, when I know that we specifically asked for lobster.” She looked over at Dawn, “and yes, I asked. Your vegetarian option is perfectly safe. He has all the tofu you could dream of.”

“Score,” Dawn said. “And the mixed vegetable platter with hummus?”

“That too. It's us carnivores who won't be able to eat if the caterer doesn't fix this mess.” Kristy buried her head in her hands. “And you can stop internally gloating any time now.”

Dawn beamed. “Soybeans aren't going to kill you, Kristy.”

“So you keep telling me.” Kristy turned to Mary Anne. “Can you get your stepsister under control? Please?”

“Sorry,” Mary Anne said, leaning in and kissing Kristy on the cheek. “I can only keep one person under control at a time, and I relinquished the right to do that to Dawn right around the time you and I started dating.” 

“Damn straight,” Kristy said. 

“You might want to ask Claudia.”

“You might want to ask Claudia what?” Claudia asked, walking into the room and sitting next to Dawn. “Sorry, I was helping the florist coordinate the colors with the ribbons.”

“Is it going to be a neon monstrosity?” Jessi asked.

“No, we're going for a muted palette of blues, mostly. That seemed to be the preferred color option,” Claudia said. “The bouquets of daisies – your request, Dawn – really seem to bring out the best of the blues.”

Dawn beamed again and flipped her hair back over her shoulder. “This sounds like it's going to be the best four-way wedding ever.”

“And probably the only one of its kind here in Stonybrook history,” Charlotte said. “We're still small enough that the town isn't really known for multiple weddings.”

“Especially when all the weddings are lesbian,” Kristy said. “Because who could have guessed that there was a hot-pocket of closeted teenage lesbians in small-town Connecticut?”

The seven others shrugged their shoulders and nodded in assent. “I guess it really is true that birds of a feather flock together,” Dawn said. “Even when we think that we're all different species of bird at first.”

“That's strangely poetic,” Mallory said. She scribbled something down on a notepad that she had been carrying around for most of the trip. “I might be able to work with that simile in some of my own creative writing.”

“Feel free to use it,” Dawn said. 

The eight exchanged looks amongst each other and then with their wife-to-be. Three days until the wedding. Even if the caterer screwed up, they'd still have each other.

* * *

The day of the wedding dawned bright and early in Stonybrook, and Mallory rolled out of bed first at the Pike house. She walked down to the back porch and sat outside, and began to scribble something in a notepad. Jessi came up next to her. “You working on your memoirs of today?” Jessi said, coming up behind her, running her hand through Mallory's hair and kissing the top of her forehead. “I can't believe that when I go to sleep tonight, it will be next to my wife. My best friend. My wife.”

“I know,” Mallory said. “I don't want to forget a second of it, because it still doesn't feel real yet. No matter where we go in this country, our wedding's going to be recognized. Our best friends' weddings are going to be recognized. And no one can take that away from us.”

Jessi nodded. From somewhere inside the house, she could hear a knock at the door. “I think that's Kristy,” Jessi said. “You ready to start the biggest day of our lives?”

“Give me a minute,” Mallory said, writing down another clause on her pad and closing it. “Okay. Now I am.” She stood up and followed Jessi back into the house.

* * *

The scene at the church was crazed. The group had divided into two and had each taken a room to get ready. Kristy, Claudia, Charlotte and Jessi got ready in one, while Stacey, Mary Anne, Dawn and Mallory got ready in the other. “Zip me up?” Dawn asked, turning her back to Mary Anne, as Stacey applied a lining of eyeshadow to her eyelids.

“I remember you asking me that when I flew out to visit you for prom,” Mary Anne said. “And now I'm doing it on your – our – wedding day.” She sniffled a bit. “Oh God, I can't cry now.”

“The mascara is tear-proof,” Stacey contributed. “So it's not going to run if you do.”

“No, but I can't cry on my wedding day,” Mary Anne said. She breathed in and out deeply. 

“The tears are going to be merited when you see your wife standing before you for the first time,” Mallory said. “I'm sure that all of our future wives look gorgeous in their dresses.”

Mary Anne smiled and continued to breathe deeply. “I'm sure they do.” She exhaled. “Okay. I'm okay now.” She zipped up Dawn's dress and patted the zipper as she did so. “Okay. There you go. All zipped up.”

“Thanks,” Dawn said, reaching around to hug Mary Anne. “Everything's going to work out. I promise.”

“I know.” The four women stood there and hugged each other. “Ready to go out and face them?”

“Of course.”

They walked out of the room holding hands, and stood there waiting for their girlfriends – future wives – almost-wives – to walk out of the other room. When they did, each of them took the hands of their beloved, with smiles on their faces. So maybe not all of them were in white, frilly dresses that reached to the floor. Kristy looked sharp in a black number, and Dawn had opted for a sundress, and Claudia had hand-created her wedding dress from a series of alluring fabrics, and none of them had trains that would make Princess Diana envious. But they all had the same look of love on their face, which was the most important wedding accessory of them all.

They walked into the sanctuary hand-in-hand, as their families and friends – including Abby, Shannon and Logan, the entire Babysitters' Club crew – turned to face them. Mary Anne swallowed a lump in her throat and squeezed onto Kristy's hand. Kristy squeezed back.

“Dearly beloved,” the pastor said, as the four couples approached the altar and positioned themselves around it, “we are here today to celebrate a special occasion. These four couples have chosen to share their special day with each other as well as all of you. Let us begin.”

A little while later, after he pontificated on the meaning of love – in all of its different meanings – he turned to Kristy. “Do you, Kristy Thomas, take Mary Anne Spier to be your lawfully wedded wife?”

“I do.”

He turned to each couple in turn, asking them – Mary Anne, Dawn, Claudia, Stacey, Charlotte, Mallory and Jessi, the same question: do you want to take this woman standing before you to be your wife, for richer or for poorer, for all the rest of the days of your life?

And the answer was always the same: “I do.”

As he finished asking Jessi, he turned again to the entire crowd. “By the power vested in me by the state of Connecticut, I now pronounce you wives. You may now kiss your wife.”

And they did, lips meeting lips, looking at each other for the first time in a whole new light. They were no longer united solely by their childhood love of babysitting – or through the babysitting – but through the most important day of their lives. 

They had waited far too long for this day, and as they ran out of the sanctuary, they prepared to enjoy it as best as they could.

Now it was time for the tricoastal honeymoon celebration in Aruba. There were perks to doing things together.

**The End.**


End file.
